Cincinnati Enquirer, 7/30/99

Klug’s clever concept

Local musician pays tribute to ‘60s rock with ‘Clem Comstock’

**** (4 out of 4 stars)

From the twisted mind of Roger Klug comes the most ambitious local production of the year.

Anyone familiar with the singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist’s two earlier discs knows him as an obsessive lover of clever, catchy pop.

Here he lets his fascination with ‘60s rock run wild, creating a fictional Cincinnati producer/Svengali who’s a sort of cross between Syd Nathan and Phil Spector.

In the tradition of the Rutles, Spinal Tap and Todd Rundgren’s classic Deface the Music LP, Where Has The Music Gone? is an audio mockumentary. There are 18 songs, 17 by apocryphal acts "produced" by the mythical Mr. Comstock and the last by Mr. Klug in tribute to the mysterious producer.

There’s petulant male vocalist Gary Cilantro ("Battle of the Wills"), clairvoyant Beach Boys clones the Coney Islanders (who have fun, fun, fun in Daddy’s "Sport Utility Vehicle"); the girl group the Schulte Sisters ("Never Gonna Get Married"); the beer-blasted Stalagmites ("Frat Rock"); Brave Sir Knight & the Squires’ "Tilt-a-Whirl Tongue," an ode to French kissing done as garage-band psychedelia.

Mr. Klug also lampoons the pop tendency of the time to pilfer classical themes in the Mozart-inspired girl-group "Don’t Go" and the surfin’ Tchaikovsky of "Reed Pipe Boogie."

It’s brilliant satire that sometimes succeeds too well. The results are often as obnoxious as the real thing was back then.

But it’s all quite a hoot. Where Has The Music Gone? stands as the most imaginative, adventurous recording project to come out of a Tristate studio in a very long time.